Later this week, I will be joining a panel of distinguished speakers to talk about the things companies can do to reduce their effect on the environment and help tackle poor air quality.
This special webinar is taking place at 4pm on Clean Air Day 2021 (17th June) with a special focus on what companies should be doing to reduce their own impact on the environment.
Under the title ‘Businesses’ new responsibility – respecting a child’s right to a clean and healthy environment Air Pollution, the business-oriented webinar will examine the new corporate responsibility to respect a child’s right to a clean and healthy environment.
You can read more about the event and register by following this link.
The air inside your home could be up to five times more harmful than the air outdoors
Martin Fahey Head of Sustainability
Reducing carbon
Like all companies Mitsubishi Electric is constantly looking at what we can do to reduce carbon across the board and we are also starting the journey to look at the embedded carbon in our products.
We felt it was important to join this online forum so that we can appeal to anyone, no matter where they are in the carbon-reduction journey – and learn lessons from each other.
The panel of distinguished speakers includes UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, David Boyd, Maria Pia Bianchetti, Private Sector Policy and Influencing Manager, UK Committee for UNICEF, and Jamie Quinn, Director Responsibkle Business & SHEQ, ENGIE UK & Ireland.
The webinar will explain why it’s vital that companies start taking proactive steps now to address their contribution to air pollution, in order to protect children’s health and the environment.
While this is a business-oriented webinar, we encourage anyone and everyone to join and learn about this new business responsibility.
Shining a light
Clean Air Day is a chance to shine a light on a really important issue as every year, air pollution causes up to 36,000 deaths in the UK.
The World Health Organisation and the UK Government recognise that air pollution is the largest environmental health risk we face today.
Poor air quality causes heart and lung diseases, is linked to low birth weight and children’s lung development and may even contribute to mental health issues.
Clean Air Day is the UK's largest air pollution campaign, engaging thousands of people at hundreds of events, and reaching millions more through the media.
Led by Global Action Plan, Clean Air Day brings together communities, businesses, schools and the health sector to:
- Improve public understanding of air pollution
- Build awareness of how air pollution affects our health
- Explain the easy actions we can all do to tackle air pollution, helping to protect the environment and our health.
And not forgetting indoor air
I’ll also be talking about the importance of indoor air quality, especially as we can all spend over 90% of our time indoors, so we need to focus on solutions that can help improve air quality here as well.
When we realise that we spend around 90% of our time indoors and, at the moment, that is predominantly in the home for the overwhelming majority of us, then we really need to talk about IAQ.
Did you know that the air inside your home could be up to five times more harmful for you than the air outdoors?
As a business, we are already playing our part in trying to raise awareness of how to improve indoor air quality (IAQ).
This is why we have partnered with BESA (Building Services Engineering Association) to produce a basic, non-technical guide to IAQ, which is freely available on our own digital library or at the BESA site.
That’s why we are working with the Global Action Plan and The Building Environmental Services Association (The BESA) to raise awareness.
We’re also a patron of the British Lung Foundation’s Living Well Alliance.
It’s all about learning to love the air we breathe.
Martin Fahey is Head of Sustainability for Mitsubishi Electric UK & Ireland Branch
